- Document date
- 24-01-2024
via Email and Blog Post
From: kevin mustafa
Subject: Wake up BBC! TfL's still putting "Miles" ahead of "Lives"! An Open Letter to Tom Edwards, BBC Transport Correspondent
Date: 24 January 2024 at 11:24:31 GMT
To: tom edwards
Tom Edwards, Transport Correspondent
BBC London News
BBC Broadcasting House
Portland Place
London W1A 1AA
Dear Tom Edwards,
I studied your report from 21 January 2024 ("Passengers frustrated by bus that does not stop”) about your BBC Colleague Paul Moss's unsatisfactory experiences with Route 18 Buses with great interest. Because your news report was entirely based upon (a) Mr. Moss’s anecdotal evidence (b) Mr. Moss's recollections from speaking at some point with ‘one inspector’, and (c) some boilerplate comments made by a unprepared functionary in Transport for London’s PR department, I thought it might be helpful for you to have a Bus Driver’s perspective on the obvious systemic safety issues evoked by your report.
Since three statements you chose to publish—
—confirm to me (at least) that the ‘Institutionally Unsafe’ foundations of TfL’s contracted Bus Operation are in plain sight (at least to that TfL inspector and the BBC), please permit me to help you to connect the dots your report manifestly failed to do.
With 20mph, Intelligent Speed Adaptation and Increasing Congestion, TfL’s Contracted Bus Schedules aren’t fit-for purpose.
On 14 December 2021, in response to a question about speed limits and Bus Time Tables from Siân Berry AM, Bus Driver Lorraine Robertson told the London Assembly Transport Committee
Following Lorraine’s comments, a review of Mayor’s Questions since February 2022 will show that Neil Garratt AM has been valiantly trying to compel the Mayor and TfL to admit that there's an obvious disconnect between ’too tight’ schedules and the pressure these put on Bus Drivers “to make up time on the route” in a city with much more traffic where the Mayor and the Boroughs have widely extended 20mph limits since 2020. For example, this exchange between Neil and Mayor Khan from 12 October 2023 nicely captures the Mayor’s utter failure to comprehend the consequences of these trends, some of which TfL’s catalysed.
With Vision Zero, having Timeliness serve as TfL’s only Bus Contract Performance Metric is not safe for Drivers, Passengers or other Road Users
Because London Bus Users like the BBC’s Mr. Moss consistently tell TfL and its political supporters that the only issue that matters to them is that London Buses run on time and fast, the only performance metric TfL and its Bus Contractors use—regardless of increasing congestion and numbers of vulnerable road users in London—is Bus Timeliness measured by Excess Waiting Time (“Headway") that Bus Operators and TfL have maintained “almost like a religion” since the summer of 2001.
Since TfL’s contracted Bus Operation is entirely focused on Bus Drivers keeping to time, anything that takes time out of that operation—like Rest Breaks, Toilet Breaks, Meal Breaks, Congestion, Road Works, Driving Safely to Road Conditions, not Speeding, Paying Heed to Vulnerable Road Users, Ensuring passengers with special needs can board and get into place safely—puts additional pressure on Bus Drivers to, as you stated in your report, 'make up time on the route.' To avoid harassment and punishment by Bus Operators, Bus Drivers are incentivised to cut corners on safety to meet contracted timetable targets and they are regularly disciplined if they don’t. That is not a safe working culture and exactly what Bus Drivers feel complelled to do to "make up time on the route” is precisely what the BBC should have been investigating for the past couple of decades.
In my half-decade as a Bus Driver, Bus Users were only happy when I arrived and left on time and drove them to where they wanted to go quickly. Bus Users didn't care if I was forced to drive while fatigued, or sick, or distracted or stressed: in fact, they never asked. The mantra of London's Bus Users is clear: as long as their Bus is on time and gets them to the place where and when they want it, that's the only thing that matters. And Safety? Look at the Bus Contract Incentives and TfL's published Bus Casualty Data: Safe Operating Conditions for London Bus Drivers are simply not on Bus Passengers’, TfL’s or Bus Operators’ radar screen. It’s always been “Go! Go! Go”! So why has the BBC never investigated TfL’s Dangerous Bus Contract Incentives?
After experiencing years of conditions getting worse for me as a London Bus Driver and then surviving the unique hell of Covid, my only meeting with TfL’s Safety and Bus Bosses convinced me that—with bureaucrats like that in charge—things could only get worse. And they have. Fatigue, Stress, Poor Working Conditions, Lack of Toilet Dignity, Lack of Air Conditioning and Heat in Bus Cabs, Low Wages—just ask any honest London Bus Driver—everything’s been getting worse. For decades, it appears that Bus Drivers and Londoners are and have been—literally, dying—just so London’s public buses don’t inconvenience the "Mr. Mosses" of this city. The Times has published a number of articles about the dangerous time-based incentives embedded into DPD Drivers’ contracts: perhaps your next report might investigate TfL’s?
Please listen to my January 2021 Interview again: What has changed?
During our January 2021 interview, you’ll hear me say “it’s miles over lives. A lot of the time you feel that all TfL and the Operators want to do is keep the buses moving at whatever cost”. A few months after our anonymous interview, after 5 years as a proud London Bus Driver I decided to quit after I had a Teams Meeting on 10 June 2021 with TfL's Chief Safety Officer and TfL's Head of Bus Business organised by Keith Prince AM with help from volunteer Bus Safety Campaigner Tom Kearney. Frankly, after witnessing all the deaths and experiencing the sickness that resulted from TfL's, the Bus Operators' and Unite the Union’s, in my view,—incompetence—during the Pandemic, that Teams Meeting confirmed to me how out-of-touch TfL's officers were about London Bus Drivers’ dangerous working conditions. So, after that meeting I made up my mind to quit the Buses and go public in order to draw attention to TfL's “Institutionally Unsafe” contracted Bus Operation. On that note: why has the BBC never investigated why TfL was handing out PPE to its own driver employees on the same day (9 April 2020) TfL was telling Unite the Union 'masks were not needed' for London Bus Drivers?
I came to London Buses from a profession where I already had acquired extensive professional safety training: in fact, carrying out Risk Assessments was part of my previous job. To be honest, even with what I saw on the Buses before Covid—e.g, Drivers falling asleep at the wheel, Engineers telling Bus Drivers to “carry on” after calling in while Hazard Lights were flashing and major systems were failing, being rushed while carrying out first-use checks by garage bosses, Bus Drivers being harassed or sacked because they complained about known-but-unresolved safety problems—the most unsafe experience I ever had as a London Bus Driver is when we started to get sick and die from Covid-19 in Spring 2020. In January 2021, I told you “miles” were more important than “lives” on TfL Buses. Since our last discussion, TfL’s own published data reveals that Bus Mileage has decreased while total Bus Casualties have increased to a higher level than they were in 2016. Will the BBC ever investigate why, after the announcement of Vision Zero and three ‘world leading’ Bus Safety Programmes since 1 February 2016, Bus Safety Performance in London has declined?
I hope you’ll refer this note the next time you decide to publish a story about TfL Bus Performance. Or better yet—it’s been over three years—just give me call! You won’t have to make me anonymous and at least you’ll have interviewed one London Bus Driver. For transparency, public interest and information for my fellow Bus Workers (including those driving on Route 18 whom I’m certain are enduring some extra pain as a result of your—in my experienced view—ill-informed BBC story), kindly note that I’ve already published this email as an Open Letter on Tom Kearney’s blog.
Yours sincerely,
Kevin Mustafa
Former London Bus Driver, volunteer Bus Workers’ Activist
Source: https://saferoxfordstreet.blogspot.com/2024/01/wake-up-bbc-tfls-still-putting-miles.html
Auto-imported from Tom Kearney’s blog.
From: kevin mustafa
Subject: Wake up BBC! TfL's still putting "Miles" ahead of "Lives"! An Open Letter to Tom Edwards, BBC Transport Correspondent
Date: 24 January 2024 at 11:24:31 GMT
To: tom edwards
Tom Edwards, Transport Correspondent
BBC London News
BBC Broadcasting House
Portland Place
London W1A 1AA
Dear Tom Edwards,
By way of introduction, I am the London Bus Driver you interviewed anonymously in January 2021 about the high death rate of TfL Bus Drivers from Covid-19 (“Bus Drivers say they feel “miles” being put ahead of “lives”). I studied your report from 21 January 2024 ("Passengers frustrated by bus that does not stop”) about your BBC Colleague Paul Moss's unsatisfactory experiences with Route 18 Buses with great interest. Because your news report was entirely based upon (a) Mr. Moss’s anecdotal evidence (b) Mr. Moss's recollections from speaking at some point with ‘one inspector’, and (c) some boilerplate comments made by a unprepared functionary in Transport for London’s PR department, I thought it might be helpful for you to have a Bus Driver’s perspective on the obvious systemic safety issues evoked by your report.
Since three statements you chose to publish—
- "Mr Moss says he spoke to one inspector who said it was because the bus drivers are under pressure to make up time on the route, so they skip stops."
- "The ticket inspector said the schedule is too tight," he says."
- "And the drivers have been told, 'if you're late , if you don't have time', and these were the inspector's words, 'then just go go go'."
—confirm to me (at least) that the ‘Institutionally Unsafe’ foundations of TfL’s contracted Bus Operation are in plain sight (at least to that TfL inspector and the BBC), please permit me to help you to connect the dots your report manifestly failed to do.
With 20mph, Intelligent Speed Adaptation and Increasing Congestion, TfL’s Contracted Bus Schedules aren’t fit-for purpose.
On 14 December 2021, in response to a question about speed limits and Bus Time Tables from Siân Berry AM, Bus Driver Lorraine Robertson told the London Assembly Transport Committee
"The problem that we have with speed limits as a bus driver is that we drive to a timetable, what is called a headway. Now that we are coming across roads that have the 20mph speed limit, our timetables have not been changed to take into consideration that we are going 10mph less, doing 20mph as opposed to 30mph. That is a problem that we are having."
Following Lorraine’s comments, a review of Mayor’s Questions since February 2022 will show that Neil Garratt AM has been valiantly trying to compel the Mayor and TfL to admit that there's an obvious disconnect between ’too tight’ schedules and the pressure these put on Bus Drivers “to make up time on the route” in a city with much more traffic where the Mayor and the Boroughs have widely extended 20mph limits since 2020. For example, this exchange between Neil and Mayor Khan from 12 October 2023 nicely captures the Mayor’s utter failure to comprehend the consequences of these trends, some of which TfL’s catalysed.
With Vision Zero, having Timeliness serve as TfL’s only Bus Contract Performance Metric is not safe for Drivers, Passengers or other Road Users
Because London Bus Users like the BBC’s Mr. Moss consistently tell TfL and its political supporters that the only issue that matters to them is that London Buses run on time and fast, the only performance metric TfL and its Bus Contractors use—regardless of increasing congestion and numbers of vulnerable road users in London—is Bus Timeliness measured by Excess Waiting Time (“Headway") that Bus Operators and TfL have maintained “almost like a religion” since the summer of 2001.
Since TfL’s contracted Bus Operation is entirely focused on Bus Drivers keeping to time, anything that takes time out of that operation—like Rest Breaks, Toilet Breaks, Meal Breaks, Congestion, Road Works, Driving Safely to Road Conditions, not Speeding, Paying Heed to Vulnerable Road Users, Ensuring passengers with special needs can board and get into place safely—puts additional pressure on Bus Drivers to, as you stated in your report, 'make up time on the route.' To avoid harassment and punishment by Bus Operators, Bus Drivers are incentivised to cut corners on safety to meet contracted timetable targets and they are regularly disciplined if they don’t. That is not a safe working culture and exactly what Bus Drivers feel complelled to do to "make up time on the route” is precisely what the BBC should have been investigating for the past couple of decades.
In my half-decade as a Bus Driver, Bus Users were only happy when I arrived and left on time and drove them to where they wanted to go quickly. Bus Users didn't care if I was forced to drive while fatigued, or sick, or distracted or stressed: in fact, they never asked. The mantra of London's Bus Users is clear: as long as their Bus is on time and gets them to the place where and when they want it, that's the only thing that matters. And Safety? Look at the Bus Contract Incentives and TfL's published Bus Casualty Data: Safe Operating Conditions for London Bus Drivers are simply not on Bus Passengers’, TfL’s or Bus Operators’ radar screen. It’s always been “Go! Go! Go”! So why has the BBC never investigated TfL’s Dangerous Bus Contract Incentives?
After experiencing years of conditions getting worse for me as a London Bus Driver and then surviving the unique hell of Covid, my only meeting with TfL’s Safety and Bus Bosses convinced me that—with bureaucrats like that in charge—things could only get worse. And they have. Fatigue, Stress, Poor Working Conditions, Lack of Toilet Dignity, Lack of Air Conditioning and Heat in Bus Cabs, Low Wages—just ask any honest London Bus Driver—everything’s been getting worse. For decades, it appears that Bus Drivers and Londoners are and have been—literally, dying—just so London’s public buses don’t inconvenience the "Mr. Mosses" of this city. The Times has published a number of articles about the dangerous time-based incentives embedded into DPD Drivers’ contracts: perhaps your next report might investigate TfL’s?
Please listen to my January 2021 Interview again: What has changed?
During our January 2021 interview, you’ll hear me say “it’s miles over lives. A lot of the time you feel that all TfL and the Operators want to do is keep the buses moving at whatever cost”. A few months after our anonymous interview, after 5 years as a proud London Bus Driver I decided to quit after I had a Teams Meeting on 10 June 2021 with TfL's Chief Safety Officer and TfL's Head of Bus Business organised by Keith Prince AM with help from volunteer Bus Safety Campaigner Tom Kearney. Frankly, after witnessing all the deaths and experiencing the sickness that resulted from TfL's, the Bus Operators' and Unite the Union’s, in my view,—incompetence—during the Pandemic, that Teams Meeting confirmed to me how out-of-touch TfL's officers were about London Bus Drivers’ dangerous working conditions. So, after that meeting I made up my mind to quit the Buses and go public in order to draw attention to TfL's “Institutionally Unsafe” contracted Bus Operation. On that note: why has the BBC never investigated why TfL was handing out PPE to its own driver employees on the same day (9 April 2020) TfL was telling Unite the Union 'masks were not needed' for London Bus Drivers?
I came to London Buses from a profession where I already had acquired extensive professional safety training: in fact, carrying out Risk Assessments was part of my previous job. To be honest, even with what I saw on the Buses before Covid—e.g, Drivers falling asleep at the wheel, Engineers telling Bus Drivers to “carry on” after calling in while Hazard Lights were flashing and major systems were failing, being rushed while carrying out first-use checks by garage bosses, Bus Drivers being harassed or sacked because they complained about known-but-unresolved safety problems—the most unsafe experience I ever had as a London Bus Driver is when we started to get sick and die from Covid-19 in Spring 2020. In January 2021, I told you “miles” were more important than “lives” on TfL Buses. Since our last discussion, TfL’s own published data reveals that Bus Mileage has decreased while total Bus Casualties have increased to a higher level than they were in 2016. Will the BBC ever investigate why, after the announcement of Vision Zero and three ‘world leading’ Bus Safety Programmes since 1 February 2016, Bus Safety Performance in London has declined?
I hope you’ll refer this note the next time you decide to publish a story about TfL Bus Performance. Or better yet—it’s been over three years—just give me call! You won’t have to make me anonymous and at least you’ll have interviewed one London Bus Driver. For transparency, public interest and information for my fellow Bus Workers (including those driving on Route 18 whom I’m certain are enduring some extra pain as a result of your—in my experienced view—ill-informed BBC story), kindly note that I’ve already published this email as an Open Letter on Tom Kearney’s blog.
Yours sincerely,
Kevin Mustafa
Former London Bus Driver, volunteer Bus Workers’ Activist
Source: https://saferoxfordstreet.blogspot.com/2024/01/wake-up-bbc-tfls-still-putting-miles.html
Auto-imported from Tom Kearney’s blog.